Recently, the mainstream of streaming services on the internet has been an over-the-top video (OTT-V). For example, moving picture experts group-dynamic adaptive streaming over a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) (MPEG-DASH) (hereinafter, also referred to as DASH) has become widespread as a fundamental technology of the OTT-V.
In the DASH, for example, a server which distributes a stream notifies a client which receives the stream of a media presentation description (MPD) as metadata including attribute information to optimally select streams having different characteristics from the same source, the client uses the MPD, and thus network environment adaptive streaming can be accomplished (for example, see Non Patent Document 1).
In other words, in the DASH, a server prepares, as content having the same contents, a plurality of streams having different image qualities or image sizes according to a communication environment of a distribution path or capability or a state of the client.
On the other hand, the client adaptively selects a stream, which can be received by the client among the plurality of streams prepared by the server and suitable for the capability (decoding capability and the like) of the client, and reproduces the stream.
In the DASH, metadata used for reproduction control of content, which is called as an MPD, is distributed from a server to a client so that the client can adaptively select and receive the stream.
In the MPD, a uniform resource locator (URL) as an address of a segment (media data such as audio/video/subtitle), into which the content is divided, and the like are described. The client transmits, based on the URL and the like described in the MPD, an HTTP request to a web server which is the distribution source of the content, receives and reproduces the segment which the web server distributes by unicast by in response to the HTTP request.